The Great War: Peace through War v2
by BloodLordShade
Summary: The Batarians have started something they can not stop. They will pay for their crimes against Humanity.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone. This is the rewrite of my original story. would like to thank all the reviewers and followers.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own either mass Effect or Command and Conquer.**

* * *

**Valkyrie transport **

**Above Torfan**

A team of marines were waiting for the command to head down to the planet's surface. Young Major Alexander "Axel" Belmont was standing beside the cockpit wondering about the fight that would be happening planet side. He was an American with French and German heritage. He grew up in a Yellow Zone in the lower North American area. He joined the military when he was old enough after Zone Troopers came to his town to help give relief operations to the local area. He had admired the huge armored soldiers for years after that day.

He was carrying M-96 Mattock, M-15 Vindicator, and a N7 Valkyrie. The HDI got them modified to fire slugs instead of those sand grains they called bullets so troops had non-rail gun weapons to fire when they needed a better firing rate. The system wasn't perfect, he had to insert a new thermal clip every so often but it got the job done better. The mods included thermal scopes and a Omni-blade attachment which was useful. Due to the bigger rounds a magazine upgrade and higher velocity barrel were a must.

One of the other marines stepped beside him. "You okay marine?"

Axel nodded, "I am fine, sir. This is just Elysium was my first true combat mission. I only fought pirates and the occasional slaver group before this."

The other nodded, "Yeah, I was nervous too on my first combat drop, don't worry stay calm and stick close to your team and you will be fine. John Shepard," he said holding out a hand which Axel shook. "Alexander Belmont, most call me Axel though."

Axel sat down beside Shepard and thought about how this all started.

* * *

**Three months ago**

**Elysium**

Marcus Goldman was sitting the night shift on the first of two ODPs (Orbital Defense Platform) above Elysium having a cup of coffee to stave off sleep. Commander Steelman was sitting in a raised chair behind waiting until he could go to bed. The night shifts were boring due to the lack of orbital traffic. Elysium had only been colonized two months prior and the orbital defense system was still not fully finished. The only real defense was the TD Net. The TD Net was a network of old WW2 Terror Drones. The drones used passive sensors to find ships. If they had no IFF or hostile IFFs they would converge onto the ship and start to tear it apart.

Marcus got a blip on his radar stating several unknown spacecraft were headed to Elysium. "Commander, I have thirty unknown craft headed our way. One is a Dreadnought sized craft. They aren't answering any comms." Steelman turned to him. "If they don't answer 15 klicks out activate the Net and arm weapons."

Marcus nodded and warmed up the station's limited firepower. So far workers only finished two heavy rail-cannons and seven of the particle beams and the station'a armor wasn't fully built. It was going to be a hard fight ahead.

* * *

**Pirate vessel _Hydra_**

"This will be the biggest payday ever, boys! I can't wait to get down there and shows those damn Humans why they should be cowering in fear of the Batarian Hegemony." The Batarian in command of the ship was relaxing believing that this would be easy as there was only one orbital station left and the fleet was gone.

**THUNK!**

The crew looked around wondering what that was. Suddenly alarms blared and one of the techs yelled to the commander, "Sir, we have decompression on decks five and six and no-one is responding."

The captain growled, "Then bring the section on-screen you idiot!"

The tech nodded and pulled up the security footage and what they saw was ... strange. There were ten weird two and a half tall mechs pulling themselves out of a large pod that had bored through the hull. The worst part showed why the crew in that area didn't respond. The entire room was sprayed with blood and small body parts laying everywhere.

"Oh God!" One of the crew gags and turns away from the carnage in the video. They watch as the mechs charge the walls. The captain laughs, "Look at this, these pathetic Humans can't even program mechs properly." But they see that he was wrong as the drones start to chop and saw their way through the walls in different directions.

"Shit! Get fire teams down there and put those things down now!"

"Sir, similar pods have hit six other ships in the fleet. The others are holding position."

"Captain, enemy ODP is firin on the fleet! Two frigates are down and we are..." The engineer was cut-off as the dreadnought rocked.

"What was that?" Yelled the Captain. Another round rocked the ship.

Marcus was maintaining the power and coolant levels as the temporary one-sided fight continued. Luckily only a few of the pirate ships had long enough range guns to attack them. "Marcus, transfer the power and coolant controls to me and get off this station."

Marcus turned to his commanding officer in shock, "Sir?"

"Get out of here you have a little girl to take care of. I intend to go down with the station. The station isn't going to last long and I can control the weapons until the shields fail."

Marcus just numbly nodded, "It was an honor Steelman."

Steelman laughed softly, "Just call me Jack Marcus and Godspeed."

* * *

**Elysium**

Fire teams were heading to check points as civilians headed to bunkers under the city. They had deployed across the city as Slingshots patrolled waiting for enemy troopships to descend into their firing range. Local milita officers had armor based off of old world war 2 Peacekeeper forces (Red Alert 3) with a riot shield that had a kinetic barrier installed to increase their defensive power.

The militia had a variety of weapons but most had a standard level armor but each was personalized by squad level. They had heavy Infantry with LMGs and rockets down to riflemen with assault rifles. Rigs were deploying at four-ways and the edges of the cities. The new Rigs had a built-in bunker were troops could bunker for protection. Wolverines marched around keeping an eye as sniper teams deployed atop skyscrapers and tall buildings.

Specter and Juggernaut artillery set-up in defended positions with Sonic Emitters and Guardian turrets protected them with a few Watchtowers keeping an eye for enemy infantry.

* * *

**Space above Elysium**

Jack was firing rounds and lasers as fast as the cannons could cycle while the station was being pounded by enemy fire and shaking from the explosions blazing into existence. Jack could die proud that his station alone took eight enemy vessels and could still fight. Six more vessels were destroyed by Terror Drone Pods. He grinned in savage triumph at that even will around thirty ships at the start they were still fighting as the stations space drones and the ion storm held off the fighters.

Unfortunately the ships holding troops hid behind more combative vessels after losing four of ten troop ships. He was sure that the rest of the fleet carried troops but it was better to take out most of the ground troops. An explosion rocked the room as shrapnel slammed into his command chair and everything went black.

Outside the fleet, after noticing that the station stopped firing ready to land. Elanos Haliat stood at a table showing the status of the pirate and slaver fleet which took more of a beating then he imagined it would from the defenses. The Turian watched as drop ships and the troop ships headed down through the atmosphere towards the planet.

He was hoping to gain control of the Terminus pirate fleets with this but it wasn't looking good. As he watched the ships head down Jack was lying down bleeding heavily from his wounds he saw a transport and a couple drop ships cross the last functioning rail gun's line of fire. Taking it as a sign Jack pulled himself up and held his hand above the fire button and said quietly, "See you in hell, Mother Fuckers!" and sent a round straight through the transport and three small drop ships before hitting a pirate frigate.

The retaliation fire destroyed the station before Jack could even realize he was dead. On the surface the defense forces saw the station die but not before it took out a large chunk of the landing forces, it would be a hard fight but they would persevere and win.

* * *

**Outskirts of Elysium**

Fly fast around the city was a certifiable swarm of Viper Assualt craft. The dozen or so bikes were just slim frames that had two tiberium core engines and a anti-grav device connected to the bottom that allowed it to effortlessly fly above the ground at high speeds. Armed with a light Tiberium shard cannon it was useful for quick recon or to defend the large heavy walkers and mechs from infantry or scout craft. The bikes could send a burst of energy to the anti-grav to "leap" over obstacles without having to slow down or turn. Due to the small fragile frame and high-speed most consider them to be death traps but when in the hands of a master they are lethal weapons capable of quick strikes than withdrawing before anyone can fight back.

As the Mammoth mk. 2s and Slingshots fired upon the ships descending upon them. Most of the ships survived the landing and ready IFVs and Makos and other craft along with hordes of pirates and slavers.

Both sides met with a clash of missile and rifle fire, both trying to kill the other side. A Mammoth charged up it's beam cannons and fired into the enemy lines hitting a Mako and then the two beams sweeping away from each other for four feet blowing up the vehicles and incinerating the infantry around them.

Sargent Jared Dorreno pulled the trigger on his Mattock, the new staple weapon of city garrisons, shooting a Turian in the chest shattering his kinetic barriers so his partner Mike Wazowski could take the kill shot. He saw to his left a trooper firing a LMG at a IFV and the troopers around it.

Orcas and Hammerheads flew over head while Firehawks dealt with dogfights against the Pirate fighters. The battle was going well until a team of Krogan Warlords came charging towards a group of militia who had to scatter or get crushed under their feet. The pirates rushed into the gap behind them only to run face first into fire from the Rig that had parked a few meters away at the beginning of the street leading into the city.

In other areas of the city things were going worse than that as pirate groups managed to get into the city and take out a couple of Slingshots but were forced into cover by sniper fire and artillery bombardment.

Gareck Halinos was pissed off, this was supposed to be an easy raid on a Human planet to make them pay for taking planets that belonged to the Hegemony. He hated the fact the Council did nothing to stop these _Filthy _pests from taking Batarian territory. He stood and fired a burst into a militia taking him down but not out of the fight as he was pulled behind a destroyed car by a Zone trooper who was leading this pack of Human dogs.

Gareck didn't realize but his time in this universe was coming to end. "Target sighted, 30 degrees north two degrees west in sector Bravo deep. 800 yards -22 degree incline, wind going 2 mph west."

"Noted, humidity, temperature, and range accounted for target sighted and preparing to fire." **BOOM! **A single 50 caliber round flew 800 yards and impacted the targets left lower eye and tore out the back of his skull spraying a couple of others with his blood. "Target down. Delta-team out."

* * *

**Civilian bunker 5**

The militia stood and fought for an hour against the pirates but eventually they fell to the overwhelming numbers against them but managed to inflict forty percent causalities of the men they fought.

The Slavers grinned at finally having something of value after three hours of trying to raid this damn city. After cutting their way inside their grins fell at the measly thirty maybe forty people there it was full of construction workers and heavy workers, no women or children to speak of.

"Damn it! They must have sent the women to the interior bunkers. Still round them up and get them on a transport to our ship and get ready to get out of here the Humans won't be long."

After forcing the Humans into a transport the ship headed to one of the smaller corvettes where the crew decided to get out of there before they could get caught by the Human reinforcements.

**Space**

They had just started under way when four Human Cruisers jumped into the system by the other Relay with ten destroyers. They started to fire upon the pirate fleet which had been caught with its pants down since most of the ships had been focused on the fight planet side and were decimated by the opening salvo and couldn't get their heavier cannons into play without having to turn.

Once the heavier cannons came into play the fighting become much more even and fiercer then either side could have wanted. Several ships died within the first five minutes of fighting but the HDI ship's better condition and more rested crew gave them an advantage from the damaged pirate ships and their tired crew.

On the ground the fighting was maybe even fiercer then the one above them fighting. Guns blazed and explosives blew as the battle raged across the city streets. A militant had gotten the idea of putting a Shredder Turret into the bed of a armored pick-up truck and using it as a mobile turret like old MG trucks from Africa in the 2000s. gunships and fighters fought in aerial dogfights as they tried to bring each other down. The whole city was like one big symphony of gunfire and explosions being sung.

Jared put a round through a Batarian's eye and slammed his K-bar knife into a Turian's throat as the fighting continued. "Command, We need support ASAP! Get us some firepower here pronto." Two Wolverines marched out as their chain-guns blazed ripping through the enemy while gun fire pinged off their armor giving the troops a breather to reload and resupply. "Alright Troopers, Command wants us to capture one of the landed ships so Intel can find the bastards who came up with this attack so we can kick down their door. Well when that happens the Devil Dogs will be there to show them the errors of their ways, right boys?"

**HURRAH! **The scattered Zone Troopers and Marines yelled as they started a push towards the enemy. The pirates refused to give up without a fight though as a team of Batarians and a couple of Krogan hold back the Human forces until two Hammerheads flew in and air dropped Heavy Riflemen on the ground. Four of them held a long rifle while the others carried LMGs.

**BOOM! **Two of the rifles fired and the first hit a Batarian and its upper half simply ceased to exist as the round just tore him in half. The second hit a charging Krogan and did some real damage, not enough to kill or even stop it but enough to help put him down. After the soldiers secured the area Jared turned to the sergeant in charge of the Heavy riflemen.

"What kind of rifles are those, and how do we get some?"

"They are double rifles, elephant guns, and these are just a test run on them. Command decided if these can blow a hole in an elephant's ass then they can blow a hole in Krogan." A laugh ensues at that.

"Come on Marines! We got aliens to kill." The group gets back in the fight.

Jared snapped a grenade into a group of cars that a trio of Turian mercs were hiding behind. The explosion ripped one apart and knocked the others back as Zone troopers used their jump pack to drop in amoung them and quickly cut open their throats and let the blood fly.

The Batarians' IFVs held a zone between two buildings managing to hold the assault at bay until a Juggernaut managed to destroy one and flip another giving the marines a chance to bring up RPGs. Two rounds lashed out and hit the third taking it out of the fight for good. The ship could be seen as Hammerheads and Venoms could be seen harassing and keeping the ship from getting away.

After ten minutes of hellish firefights and constant mortars and artillery strikes as Pitbulls fired rockets and mortars while Titans and Juggernauts marched forward firing their heavy cannons at the faltering enemy line.

Garek couldn't believe it, after all the time and money spent they still couldn't beat these swine! The Human troopers were marching forward relentlessly unwilling to let them escape with their lives. He wouldn't hide from these morons anymore. Grabbing a second assault rifle and stood yelling, "**I AM GOING TO KI..." **unfortunately for him a cannon round from a Titan decided to take up residence in his chest cavity causing it to burst in a way reminiscent of a Chest Buster from Aliens.

Once the Marines had gained a foothold in the ship CQC specialists took the lead on the operation. The fight became what the Russians called a _Rattenkrieg, _or Rat War, the entire ship had to be cleared room by room. Jared and his team slowly cleared the sector of the ship they were given which included the cargo hold. Along the way in the firefights outside of the ship they had picked up a marine by the name of Alexander Belmont, he was alright, a bit green but alright.

Once they hit the door to the Hold Jared grabbed two flash bangs and slowly pushed the door open a crack. They could hear Batarians arguing over something. Jared looked at his team to make sure they were ready and flung the grenades in and grabbed his rifle, after the explosion of light and sound the team threw open the door and quickly executed the Batarians before they even realized what had happened.

That was when Jared looked around and almost threw up in horror and disgust. There were cages, not cargo containers like they thought, full of aliens. Asari, Turians, Salarians, and even a couple of Krogan and Quarians. They were ill and some cages had their excrement across the cage's floor. It was a horror the team wished they never had to have seen.

"Command, are you seeing this?" Jared asked as his team tried to stay calm and check for more Batarians. "Roger, Sargent. Have your team get these people out of there, Medical supplies and staff are on their way with food and basic supplies. I am sending a translation matrix to you now." Jared could hear the disgust in the Intel Officer's voice as he relayed commands.

"Alright team, start getting these cage doors open and these people out of here. Try and keep them calm we don't need a riot."

Jared then spoke out loud to the prisoners. "Attention everyone, I am Jared Dorreno of the HDI. My team and I will be getting you out of here but I need you to stay calm and follow our orders. Food and medical aide will be waiting for you outside but there are still Batarians out there so we need to be able to keep quiet and not get into a firefight."

The team quickly used the bolt cutters in their standard issue gear to cut the locks of the cage doors and started helping people out of their cells. Many could barely walk while some didn't even seem aware of their surroundings.

Axel found a young Asari, she appeared to be maybe ten years old, trapped in a razor cage that barely gave her any room to move without being torn to shreds from the razor wire. He quickly came over and spoke softly and gently to her, "Hi, my name is Alexander but you can call me Axel. I am going to get you out of there, its going to be okay I promise." The poor girl couldn't even stand as her legs had atrophied due to them not being used in so long. Axel quickly pulled her into a bridal carry and headed out with her clinging to his neck crying her eyes out.

"What's your name little one?" She looked at him with teary eyes and whispered, "Selrina." He smiled, "That's a beautiful name." She smiled a little and hugged him tighter. She refused to let him go even when paramedics tried to pull her away to check her injuries.

* * *

**Arturus Station**

**The day after the Skyllian Blitz **

David Grendson was pissed. Head Security Administrator of the HDI for only a few months and this happens! The video from the team who had found the slaves and prisoners had leaked to the press and the public was in an uproar. Almost everyone was crying out for Batarian blood, even the pacifists which was shocking. The worst part was that a group of civilians had been kidnapped and taken from Elysium but there was nothing they could do until they found the missing colonists.

"Good day Administrator. The Intelligence Department is working to crack the computers aboard the captured slaver ship. The colonists will be found with all due haste. On other news while they are horrified as usual the Citadel refuses to do anything stating it isn't worth it to start a war with the Terminus Systems."

David turned to face the speaker. "Hello Illusive Man. Alright this needs to be done quick before the public gets even rowdier from this. Send in the troops as soon as you find out thier location. As for the Citadel, I was honestly expecting that but no matter. We shoved the Scrin off our home world so we don't need their help."

The Illusive Man was about to leave when David said , "Send in the Burning Legion once you find them. I want them to burn!"

* * *

**Codex**

CC-6 Pitbull: The GDI use this jeep vehicle as a patrol car and light attack craft. It has a dual missile launcher to engage ground and air targets, it has a 80mm mortar for extra damage against ground forces. Capable of deceting stealthed units the Pitbull is the staple of HDI scouting and reconnaissance efforts.

Terror Drones pods: The ship based weapons were by using terror drones as anti-ship weapons. Holding ten Terror Drones they would use heavy magnets to attach to the sides of a ship and burrow a hole in and unleash their cargo of Drones which would immediately run rampant and cut their way through the ship and tear it apart from the inside.

Hammerhead: With the creation of the Thunderhawk gunship the Hammerhead was slated for police work and city defense due to it's slower speed but more stable flight. The Hammerhead has two Vulcan cannons and an octagonal deflective armor. It's twin intermeshed rotor give it immense lift and great stability.

Slingshots: These dedicated anti-air craft have four 30mm anti-air guns and a hexagonal composite armor allowing it to survive most light weapons. It has a HoverTech Chassis giving it a greater acceleration with great stability.

SA-2 Orca: a mix of the third and fourth tiberium war era Orcas this helicopter is more capable as a light attack craft for city defense due to its tighter turn radius compared to the Thunderhawk gunship. Armed twin 50mm machineguns and two light comet rocket launchers this gunship is capable of being a asset to city defenses as it weaves through buildings at a high or low altitude.

Firehawk: This Fighter-Bomber carries two Incendiary bombs or four air-to-air missiles. This aircraft has become Humanities premier dual-role aircraft in the HDI armory. Capable of 8-1 thrust, it puts out 8 times it's weight in thrust.

Black Hand: The Black Hand has become the one of the Elite combat companies of the HDI armies. wearing full power armor and flame-proof cloaks and armed with flamethrowers these troopers are capable of burning the enemy to the ground with their purifying flame while not threatening their own safety. They use Purifiers as combat walkers and flame tanks mostly due to their slight pyromaniac tendencies.

* * *

**Well the action is heating up. Haha! get it? Black Hand are getting into the story? Ah oh well, no one ever thinks I am funny. Anyway Sorry for the wait. Please Read and Review. Let the Great War commence.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here is the Second Chapter of The Great War. Now if anyone has constructive ideas for the war please don't hesitate to PM or review. I will ignore flames or insults as they just waste my time. I don't own jack shit from Mass effect or C&C.**

* * *

**Black Hand Flagship _Purifying Flame_**

Kyar'Tegran nar Neema walked down the hallways with Chief Engineer Gregory Davowski. Kyar stood at an even 5'6" with a green tinted black enviro suit. He was showing Kyar the areas of the ship so he wouldn't get lost. Kyar was on his Pilgrimage from the Migrant Fleet. Due to the better relations with the HDI most Quarian pilgrims went to Human planets because of their more relaxed stipulations on jobs they could have and the technologies they could buy for the Fleet. Kyar had signed on as an engineer for the _Purifying Flame. _He was curious about these Black Hand. Not much had been available on the Codex entry he found concerning The Black Hand. Their motto was "Cleanse the enemy with purifying flames and march forth over thier ashes."

The ship and it's technology was amazing, the entire thing had nearly blown his mind at the impressive design. The ship even had a red crystalline data layer that could be seen on the inside under thick armor-glass. The engines were a deuterium-fusion reactor allowing more use of FTL because it didn't create heat like a Ezzo core did. Kyar was glad his contract for two years allowed him to choose a technology to bring back to the Fleet, true there were limits to what he could take back mainly weapons technology and Tiberium but there were many other useful items.

They passed several rooms that contained either storage or relaxation for the crew. He could see some of them relaxing while most were hurrying about. "All hands, to stations and prepare to get under way. I repeat all hands, to stations and prepare to get underway."

Gregory turned to him, "Come on I will show you your room later, we need to get to the engines." The elevator was faster than most in Citadel Space, Kyar thought. They reached the engine room quickly and Kyar saw the most amazing engine he had ever seen. There was a raised rectangular pyramid that stretched eight meters, along that stretch were four reactors on each side. These shell-like reactors connected by tubes to the upper surface of the room. In these tubes Kyar could see the raw electrical power flowing through them. It was an interesting sight.

"The power output could easily power an entire colony planet for a year on ten minutes of output. It unfortunately needs constant maintenance to keep up full power." Gregory nodded to a real computer station that was near them. "That will be your station. Get ready the ship will be underway soon. Your job will be to regulate the power through the various systems in and out of combat and general maintenance of the engine.

The _Purifying Flame _headed toward the relay with the _Rising Fire _and the _Falling Ashes, _all three were Black Hand Cruisers with laser cannons replacing the cannons and blue Tiberium core missile launchers replacing the particle defenses and the Sonic torpedo launchers. These ships were a light blue with crimson flame detailing that gave them a fiery appearance. They started to head for Torfan, it would take about ten hours to reach Torfan.

* * *

**Head Security Office **

**Mars**

David was fielding calls from planetary governors about the threat of Batarian slaver attacks. He was running ragged between civilians and politicians arguing over what to due while he tried to keep the peace.

"David," Jack Harper activated a hologram in his office, "we found the colonists and have the Black Hand heading out. The Shadow team onsite is preparing the defenses to ensure the troops land. They are also making sure the colonists aren't being sent else where."

David sighed in relief. "Thank God, I was going to lose my mind due to the calls. Alright, just make sure the Council can't do anything to try and stop us from recovering our people."

"That's being done already. I took the liberty of having Anita Goyle being sent to the Citadel to see if the Council will do anything. If that is all, sir?"

David stood his head and Jack's hologram shutdown. "Like hell those idiots will do anything. Probably claim the suffering of a few is better them more." David whispered to himslef as he started on the never ending horror, paperwork.

* * *

**Torfan**

The fiery fleet appeared near Torfan and was taking an hour to prepare ground forces and to assault the eight ships in orbit. They wouldn't be a problem since three converted cargo ships with a few guns slapped on making them little more than bullet shields for the real threats. The three destroyers and two cruisers. The three Black Hand ships will be able to take care of them but the bullet shields were the problem, the cargo ships would be able to soak up damage.

"_Rising Fire _I want you to jump to these coördinates and fire on the bullet shields while the _Falling Ashes _will jump to the other side once the they get between you and the real threats and we will then drive straight down their throats." Admiral Gideon Raveshaw the second commanded. He was descended from the original Black Hand leader under Kane, standing at 4'10" he was a little short but still commanded respect from his troops.

The _Rising Fire _used a short FTL burst to the left of the defense formation and fired it's Obelisk turrets to carve a long groove into the closest cargo ship and hammered it with Tiberium core missiles to shock them into action and fired its only rail gun that fired a magnesium thermite mix round into one of the destroyers causing it to burn. The destroyer was basically out of the fight for the moment allowing the _Falling Ashes _to strike the far side forcing one bullet shield to head back over allowing them to send a magnesium thermite round into a cruiser damaging it but it was still in the fight allowing it to send a barrage of rounds into the _Falling Ashes'_ ion shield which took a hit but started to recharge, that was the trade-off with the ion shields they were a little weaker but recharged easier than kinetic barriers.

"Start the assault. I want boots on the ground in five minutes or I will have every man who delays me go through initiation again and prepare a Firestorm Bomb." Everyone stiffened at doing initiation again, it was a brutal way of making sure Black Hand was the best.

Down on the surface Batarians were getting defenses ready at the bunkers on the surface. The HDI were in orbit and the Batarians weren't going down without a fight since they had the backing of the Hegemony and everyone in the universe that the Council wouldn't do jack to help a few little lost souls since they haven't done anything in centuries. "Look up aircraft inbound!" Someone yelled out. They could see the giant transports of the Humans but also a small craft in front of them. After the transports landed near the bunker the first ship leveled and dropped a small object before heading back up. After a few seconds the small object released some fluid and kept falling. After the fluid hit the ground the object hit and the world disappeared in a storm of hellfire.

Inside the lead lander the strike force command stood. "Alright team the Vertigo has dropped the Fuel Air Bomb and is headed back now it's our time to show these heretics our ways of war. Show no mercy, you all saw the videos of the poor souls they enslaved and tortured, they deserve nothing but purifying fire. We stand between Humanity and the enemy."

On the ground Hegemony soldier Jaen had been on the outskirts of the blast and barely managed to survive because of the shockwave. Lying on the ground in pain he could see the fiery hell of the blast sight, the only lucky thing was he knew nothing could survive that fire so they had a moment to recover. That was until a slaver next to him yelled out, "Look in the fire!" Large black shapes marched through the fires towards them as if they weren't standing practically in a firestorm from hell.

Then gunfire started to hit the pirates and slavers as the black soldiers just rushed towards them. Once they got close the figures fired blue flames at them and easily started to push them back as they tried to hold the bunker entrance so the engineers could shut and lock it down. They managed to do and relaxed inside wondering what exactly could the invaders do now. They could hear a hissing noise and could see the blast door start to glow red. "Their melting the door!" Someone said hysterically.

Outside the squad's sergeant was using his plasma caster to burn through the metal door. Usually the plasma caster made for enemy armour but it did make an impromptu plasma torch. "How long until we breach the door?"

"Five minutes, Sir." The rest of the squad was making sure the Batarians were truly dead. "Found a live one here sir!"

They stood around the injured trooper and one noticed the insignia on his armor. "That's a Hegemony insignia!"

"Drag him back to the transports, Intel can have him. We have other priorities to deal with." The injured Batarian started to panic and curse as one of the Initiates draged him none too gently back to the landers.

They melted the door close to breaking so they could charge through it to surprise the enemy on the other side. Breaking through the Black Hand immediately started to fight their way through the bunker looking for the prisoners and slaves hoping to find the colonists stolen from Elysium.

They came across some slave but no humans just some asari and turians. "Get some Black Disciples down here to help them back up to the surface. Mark and Johnson, stay here until they get here."

They kept fighting their way through while the Batarians screamed from the fires burning them alive as they fought against the "Black Demons" who used fire as their way of war.

On the surface things were a little harder for the Black Hand as the Batarians kept their distance from them forcing them switch to assault rifles and heavy incinerators. The assault rifles used magnesium infused metal to burn their targets while heavy incinerators fired a glob of napalm that stuck to their targets. Above them stood the Purifiers with their flamethrowers and inferno cannons. They took quickly with the burning of entire floors with the purifiers' fire cleansing them.

A few Batarians futilely tried to use incinerate to light them ablaze to no effect. The Black Hand had obtained minimal casualties in the fight. Then a transport landed and released a modified Redeemer. Standing forty meters tall it carried two incinerator cannons and two flamethrowers instead of infantry hard-points and an obelisk laser. It roared, "_**The Redeemer has Risen! Onward to Victory!"**_ It's cannon fired and caved in a building upon a couple of batarian defenders who had managed to hold out for a few minutes.

* * *

Hade Kesair was running through the remains of his base firing quick shots to keep the beasts in his way from stopping him long enough to get past. He was running for a hidden air pad with a small freighter with a small FTL core. If he could just get away he could easily out maneuver the ships in orbit long enough to hit the relay.

He could see a squad of Batarian Soldiers putting up a fight against the invading Humans. Hade tossed a frag grenade near the Humans and sprinted to the squad next to the hangar door. The squad nodded to Hade and one spoke yelling over the din of rifle fire and the roar of fire. "Sir, you need to get out of here. Orders from the Hegemony state that you have information that cannot be gained by the Humans. We will hold this door so you can escape."

Hade nodded, "Thank you for your men's sacrifice, soldier." Before Hade could move a shimmer in the air fired a small burst of bullets into the squad as three others fired as well. The shimmer rippled and revealed four Human shaped figures. The four men stood in slim black bodysuits with light metal strips put in strategic areas of the body. They wore plexi-glass visor helmets with rebreathers. Hade tried to flee but one pulled a ballistic knife and fired it into his leg, taking him down.

Hade was pulled over on his back as one of the large black figures knelt above him. "Okay, Batarian you can make this easy on yourself or you can do the stupid thing and try to be tough. I want to know how you got the pirate and slaver groups to join for the attack. It would take a lot of capital and strength to bring them together. So think carefully and tell me what I want to know."

Hade spat at the helmet of the man. "Go to Hell, you beast!" The Black Hand just sighed, "I didn't want to do this, Mike show him the error of his ways." Another one, this one's armor was a little smaller pulled a flamethrower and lit the pilot light and pressed it into the wound from the knife the Shadow had put in his leg. "_**YGAAAAAAHHH!"**_The pain was excruciating and he felt like his entire leg was on fire. "_Ok, The Hegemony gave us the funds and weapons to bring the groups together for a strike at the Humans. They hated that the Council would do nothing to stop the HDI from colonizing the Verge!"_

"Alright good one last thing, then we will let you go." Hade looked shocked but nodded. "Do you have anything to prove this. I won't let you go until you give me physical proof." Hade sighed in relief. "I have the video file from his call on my Omni-tool. _Here take them!_ _You have what you want, let me go! Please!" _

"Today is your lucky day Batarian, Now go before I change my mind." Hade fled into the hangar to his ship.

A Disciple stepped next to him. "Sir, should we let him go?" The commander nodded, "Command wanted us to let him go, besides he has a tracking device on him that will lead us to the others and spread the story of this place. Come on, we have to secure the rest of this building."

* * *

**The Citadel **

**Hours after the Burning of Torfan**

The Council was in an emergency meeting with the Human and Batarian representatives. The meeting had only started and already the Batarian started yelling about reparations from the HDI. He started yelling three minutes ago about his people's suffering and still hadn't stopped. "They should be paying for the troubles they have caused the Hegemony! We will not let this insult go unnoticed."

He pulled a video up and played it. "This is what these savages did to Torfan!"

The video was a little grainy at first then cleared. They watched as a small aircraft dropped a bomb towards the planet surface. When the bomb blew they were shocked at the devastation caused by the bomb. The video went to static for a moment and then they could see the field of hellfire burning bright. After a moment they heard a Batarian yell out, "Look in the fire!" Indeed they could see black figures marching through the flames as easy as if there weren't any flames. Once the figures got closer they unleashed blue flames and swept them across the field against the Batarian pirates. They watched as a fight ensued as the Batarians gave ground to the invading forces. After they got the bunker door closed the Council and civilians thought they were safe but Anita and Donnel knew better, the Black hands' flamethrowers burned at nearly a thousand degrees Fahrenheit. They watched shocked at the door growing red and patches melting and running like water down the door.

Someone spoke in awe, "_Spirits, _What in the hell are they!?"

Anita stepped forward, "They are the Black Hand, they will cleanse the Heretics against Humanity with Purifying Flame. They hold fire as the greatest weapon in their arsenal from incendiary rifles to "Firestorm" fuel air bombs and magnesium artillery shells. Their vehicles include the military verions of the Purifiers.

The video skipped forward to where the pirate defenders fought tooth and nail against the Black Hand who marched forward relentlessly as Mantis drones took Mantis gunships out of the air easily with a barrage of Tiberium core missiles. Then a _HUGE _mech that was double the size of the Purifier mechs strode forward on the four legs. It spoke in a loud deep voice, "_**The Redeemer has Risen! Onward to Victory!" **_It strode forth and destroyed literally everything in its path uncaring about the damage it caused. The Redeemer kept getting closer than when it filled the screen it raised one of its huge feet and the foot stepped straight on the origin of the video. It then went to static as everyone was in shock at the might the HDI would bring against just a group of pirates.

Anita was calm as he railed against them, finally when the video stopped she spoke to cut him off. "What suffering have we caused exactly, we attacked a slaver base that was holding kidnapped colonists from a pirate attack on Elysium. So unless the Hegemony would like to confess to the attack they will receive nothing from us and trust me Ambassador if the Hegemony had anything to do with this attack Torfan will be just the beginning. We warned you about this. We will declare war on you for your crimes. They," Anita gestured towards the Council," might let your crimes go unpunished because they are too afraid of trying but we will not let your childish behavior go unchecked."

After she finished her com-pad flashed. Looking at it her eyes widened and she gave the Batarian a feral grin. "Ooohhh, You guys just fucked up big time." She stepped forward and announced, "I have new evidence to submit to this meeting."

She hit a button and over the speakers in the room a voice spoke, "_Ok, The Hegemony gave us the funds and weapons to bring the groups together for a strike at the Humans. They hated that the Council would do nothing to stop the HDI from colonizing the Verge!"_ Anita smirked and spoke again, "I also have proof in the form of the Batarian Hegemony leader speaking to the leader of the pirates who attacked Elysium."

At that people who were watching the meeting from the side lines knew the Hegemony was in trouble but the trouble came from the wrong group. Tevos stood, "We will speak to the Hegemony and tell them this kind of behavior is not appropriate from them. Rest assured this kind of thing will not happen again." She sat and seemed to think Anita would accept that.

She drew a breath and spoke harshly, "Are you idiots that dumb? You think telling them off will work when it has done nothing in the past. You know what? Don't worry about it we will take care of the problem ourselves." She turned to the Batarian ambassador. "The HDI declares war on the Batarian Hegemony due to an unprovoked attack on our borders and civilians. You will be punished for your crimes against Humanity." The Council stood horrified.

"You can not do this, we forbid it!" Tevos yelled at Anita. She looked at them with a raised brow. "What right do you have to order us about? We will not sit by and let innocent people be kidnapped and enslaved like you do."

The Batarian ambassador snarled at Anita, "You will pay for this Human!" He pulled a pistol and aimed it at her. Around Anita eight Shadow team members decloaked and aimed their dual N7 Hurricanes at the ambassador and his two guards. Anita smiled and turned to walk away, "The HDI will not let pirates and slavers attack our colonies because it's too difficult to guard our colonies and that we don't want to provoke the Terminus Systems." With that she left with Donnel as the guards watched the Council and Batarians. After an unseen signal the Shadows one by one stepped away and cloaked themselves.

Everyone was surprised by the turn of events. Humanity just declared war on the Hegemony and told the Council to screw themselves and shown they were capable of cloaking infantry. Things were going to get interesting.

* * *

**Codex**

Purifier: Used exclusively by the Black Hand. It was the predecessor to the Avatar mech and was fitted with a subliminal messaging system to boost morale and comes pre-equipped with a flamethrower and laser. Recently the Black Hand's increase in use of Flame tech caused them to use a fire cannon rail gun that fires a slug of thermite mixed into Magnesium.

Redeemer: An unit built to counter the MARV the Redeemer is a epic unit built to give heavy damage while living through anything thrown at it. Armed with a Obelisk-based tri-part laser on it's left arm and two infantry hard-points on it's shoulder blades. It is the representation of Nod's power on the battlefield

Vertigo bomber: The Vertigo was a stealth bomber used during the Third Tiberium War. Holding a single bomb capable of leveling small buildings it was a heavy short range bomber used by the Nod forces to great effect.

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This is the second chapter of the rewrite. Please read & Review.


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